True Love Will Prevail
by Wicked Willow
Summary: a rockettshippy fic. Jessie and James are seperated by Giovanni, and this is their story of survival. rated PG for some mild cussing. Please review!


James paced nervously in front of the tent. He hadn't been able to sleep all night. This was it. Today would either be the beginning or the end of his life. He patted his pocket to reassure himself that the box was still there. When he felt its comforting presence, he sighed.  
  
Ok, he thought, now to make her breakfast. He went to the store with his last few dollars and bought all of Jessie's favorites. It wasn't much, but it was more than they had seen in a while.  
  
Back at camp, James cooked breakfast, occasionally patting the ring in his pocket. Everything had to be perfect for his beautiful Jessie. After almost burning the eggs, he was as ready as he would ever be.  
  
He grabbed the tray, almost spilling its contents. After two deep breaths, he was ready. James closed his eyes and stepped inside the tent.  
  
"Good morning Jess," he said softly, his eyes trying to adjust to the dark interior. "Jess, Jessie are you awake?" He set the tray down on a box and moved carefully towards her sleeping bag. He reached down gently, "Jess?"  
  
She wasn't there.  
  
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Jessie woke in what she thought was the interior of their tent. Oh, what a headache, she thought. As she reached to rub her throbbing skull, she realized she was chained to a wall. A wall, she pondered, tents don't have walls.  
  
Then it hit her. Giovanni. He was behind this, she just knew it. She didn't know why he had kidnapped her, but she knew it was him behind this.  
  
"Why the little... if he did anything to James, I'll kill him." She was madly in love with James, but thought that he just wanted to be friends. After all, she thought sadly, guys who are interested aren't so damned polite all the time.  
  
Suddenly she heard a door slam down the hall. Damn, her head hurt! They must have drugged me, she thought. The footsteps were getting closer. They stopped right out side Jessie's door. Think, damn it, think. I can't defend myself chained up like this. I'm gonna kill you, Giovanni, She vowed.  
  
Slowly the door opened.  
  
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James was stunned. Where could she be? He sat on her sleeping bag and started to sob. "She finally got tired of me and left. What am I going to do without her?" he cried.  
  
An hour latter, Mondo came into the tent, looking for Jessie and James. As he saw James sobbing on the ground, his heart broke. "Kojiro, what happened? Did Musashi turn down your proposal?" asked Mondo carefully. James just cried harder. "S-she hates me Mon-do. S-s-he finally got tired of m-me and just left."  
  
"She would never desert you Kojiro. Something terrible must have happened to her to make her leave," Mondo reasoned.  
  
"Like wh-what?"  
  
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The door opened to reveal an armed guard. Jessie stiffened when one came to unhandcuff her. "Where are you taking me?" she demanded roughly. The only answer she got was a hand across the mouth. That, combined with the drug induced headache, made her loose consciousness once again.  
  
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"Well..." Mondo stalled, "Maybe the boss called and wanted to see her." James's face brightened only to fall again. "Giovanni hates us. He never wants to see us. He would feel better if we were killed. Then he could hire someone else in our place. I think that the only time the boss calls is to see if we have died yet."  
  
"Oh Kojiro, if it means as much to you as I know it does, I will go and see if she is at headquarters. We will at least be able to rule out that possibility," Mondo offered. James stared bleakly at the younger man. "I hope that she is there, even if she is only there to resign from the team."  
  
"She will be there," Mondo assured James. "And not to resign either."  
  
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Mondo much preferred the outdoors with Musashi and Kojiro than the solemn stone walls of the headquarter buildings. Well, at least he was on his way out. The meeting with Giovanni hadn't been helpful. He had insisted that he hadn't seen either Musashi or Kojiro for weeks. Mondo loved his job and somewhat respected his boss, but felt that Giovanni knew more than he was saying.  
  
His suspicions were confirmed when he saw four armed guards coming from the confinement section of the building. They were carrying a human shaped bundle with Musashi's brilliant red hair.  
  
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When Jessie regained consciousness, she was again chained hand and foot. Smirking into her face was none other than Cassidy. "Good morning, sunshine," she said with an evil grin. "The boss wants to see you." Jessie groaned.  
  
A door opened, and through it walked Giovanni. "You may leave now Cassidy." She smirked again at Jessie as she left the room.  
  
"Well, it is nice to see you again Jessica." Giovanni said with a sneer. "What do you want?" Jessie asked. "And would you take these handcuffs off of me?" "As you wish, my dear. But first you must do something for me." Jessie sighed. This couldn't be good. "And what would that be?" "Only a small service..." "Giovanni, cut the crap and just tell me what I have to do for you."  
  
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By the time Mondo got back to camp, James had cried himself to sleep on Jessie's sleeping bag. Poor Kojiro, Mondo thought sadly. He sat down in the door to the tent to think.  
  
"Giovanni said that he hadn't seen Musashi for a while, yet when I was leaving, I could have sworn that was her, or at least her hair. I suppose it could have been someone else with that color hair. Besides, why would Musashi be unconscious?" Mondo said, not realizing that he had spoken aloud. James stirred and asked Mondo if he had found Jessie. "I couldn't talk to the boss today," Mondo lied. He would find out more before he talked to Kojiro. He only hoped it would be good news.  
  
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"I want you to marry me." Giovanni said at last. "Mostly because I need to have children, and you are the most attractive mate I could find."  
  
Jessie starred at Giovanni for a full two minutes before she could find her voice. Even then, it came out very weak. "Never, you freak. I wouldn't marry you if you were the last human on earth!" she declared. The slap that accompanied her words was expected. "How dare you!" he shouted. "Fine, you want to play it that way, then that's the way we will play it."  
  
Giovanni reached over and calmly pushed a button. "Yes, sir?" a voice replied. "Show the medics in here right now," Giovanni ordered. Before she could react, Jessie was being injected with some sort of drug. That was the last thing she remembered of that day.  
  
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Mondo waited for two days before going back to see Giovanni. This time he braced himself for the worst. The boss was in his office.  
  
"I need to talk to you about Musashi, sir," Mondo said as respectfully as he could. "Kojiro is going nuts worrying about her, and I need something to tell him."  
  
"She is dead." Giovanni said with his usual sneer. Or will be soon, he thought to himself. She would pay dearly for rejecting his proposal.  
  
Mondo sat as still as a statue. "Dead? How could she be dead?" he asked in disbelief. "She came in here several days ago, right after you were here last, I believe," he lied. "She had gone mad and we had to drug her to keep her under control. She died early this morning." Mondo sat, stunned. How could Musashi have gone insane? As a tear ran down his face, he wondered how he would ever tell Kojiro that the love of his life was dead. It would destroy Kojiro...  
  
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As Mondo entered camp, James all but attacked him to learn what he had found out. The tears in Mondo's eyes were not a good sign. "W-what happened?" James asked, starting to go numb.  
  
Mondo took a deep breath, ready to tell him all. "I talked to the boss, and he told me that several days ago, Musashi came to headquarters and was..." What am I doing? Mondo thought. He will kill himself, and I can't live without both of them. "Tell me Mondo. Don't leave anything out. Please. I need to know," James begged.  
  
"She... she... resigned from the team and moved away. The boss... He didn't know why, but she is... gone." Mondo stammered. If Kojiro was going to find out his love was dead, Mondo sure wasn't going to tell him. As it was, Mondo was worried for his leaders sanity.  
  
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She hated him. That was the only reason she would quit a job she loved and move away. She hated him! He had loved her with all his heart, and she had left. A sob escaped James's throat. How could he have been so stupid? Well, he reasoned, whoever wins Jessie's heart is the luckiest man on earth. It was just too bad that that man wasn't him. James seriously didn't know if he could survive without her in his life...  
  
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When Jessie woke, she felt as though an elephant was sitting on her head. She barely controlled the groan that tried to escape her lips. As she tried to role over, she realized that she was chained to a table. Great, she thought, now I cant move at all. As she investigated her surroundings, she saw that she was in a lab of some sort. As she was looking around, two lab technicians and Giovanni walked into the room. "Good to see that you are up, my dear," Giovanni stated. "We need to have another little chat."  
  
"I have nothing to say to you," Jessie said as calmly as she could, which wasn't very. "Well, then just listen," he snapped back coldly. When she didn't respond, he went on. "I don't believe that you realize the severity of you situation. You can either marry me and have lots of my children, or you can become a lab rat. The choice is yours." He paused, an evil glare in his eyes. "I guarantee you that you won't survive the tests these good doctors perform on you."  
  
"I would rather take my chances with the doctors than with you. At least this way, I won't have to kill myself," Jessie spat back. How long had she been here? One day? Eight? There was no way to tell. All those damn drugs they had given her! Surely James would come and look for her. But how would he know to look here?  
  
Giovanni smiled as he walked out. He had told that runt the right thing about Jessica after all.  
  
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One month latter...  
  
"I am here to see Kojiro in the mental ward," Mondo told Cassidy, the head guard. She grunted a very unattractive grunt and unlocked the door. Mondo sighed. Even a month after he had told Kojiro that Musashi had deserted him, Kojiro had still not recovered from the deep depression. Mondo was grateful every day that he hadn't told James the truth at the time. Things would have been much worse.  
  
He hated seeing his mentor like this. He continued to visit because he felt somewhat responsible. James's vacant stare unnerved him greatly. He wished that his mentor would move on, but knew that it would take time... and one very important conversation. Mondo only hopped that this new cellmate would provide some comfort...  
  
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The experiments they performed on Jessie went beyond inhumane. After they shaved her hair off, she refused to care any more. The tests they did influenced her mind, and by the second week, the old Jessie was all but gone.  
  
The doctors, in an unusual moment of pity, told Giovanni that she had gone insane and killed herself. She had gone insane, they reasoned, why not take a little pity.  
  
They moved her into a cell by herself for almost two weeks, then decided that it was a waste of space to give her her own cell. She was unknowingly moved into a cell with the person she loved more than life. Both were so far-gone that neither really noticed nor cared that there was another person in the small room.  
  
They each heard a latch click open, though neither seemed to care.  
  
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Mondo sighed again. This was it. He had to tell him. He couldn't live with himself if he didn't tell Kojiro that his love wasn't just gone, she was dead. He reasoned with himself that he had to tell him sooner or latter, and that at the headquarters with profesionals around would be the best.  
  
The interior of the cell was painted a bright sterile white. Two cots sat a little ways from the toilet. On one of the cots was Kojiro, curled up in a little ball. The other occupant was a bald mass in one corner.  
  
The doctors said that the only time James responded to anything other than food was when he saw Mondo or someone said the name "Jessie".  
  
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Jessie noticed Mondo come in. She didn't realize that it was Mondo, but she still noticed. She had been trying for weeks not to respond to anything. She figured that if the doctors couldn't get a response out of her, they would stop trying. True, she had a lot of psychosis as a result of the testing, but she wasn't completely gone yet. All she knew was that she had no reason to live. Giovanni, in one last act of hatred, had told her that James had died minutes before what would be her last set of tests had begun.  
  
True, her prognosis was bad, she only knew that her one true love was dead, nothing more. She had forgotten her name, James's name, everything but their love. With help, she could be saved...she could remember...  
  
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Mondo approached James cautiously, not wanting to startle him. "Kojiro? It's me, Mondo?" James sat up and almost smiled. "Hey. Where have you been lately?" he asked softly. "Nowhere special," Mondo replied. "Kojiro, we really need to talk." "O...k." "You know how I told you that Musashi quit the team and left...well, that's not true."  
  
James brightened at this revelation. "You mean, she came back? That means I can propose to her now!" "Umm... not exactly. You see, she is...umm...dead." The smile on James's face slowly faded and was replaced by a blank stare.  
  
As Mondo turned to leave, James spoke. "I loved her, Mondo. I loved her so much that I would have died for her." "I know Kojiro, and I think Musashi does too." And with that, Mondo turned and walked out the door.  
  
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The quiet sobbing finally woke Jessie at midnight. Without knowing why she did it, she walked over and crawled into James's bed. She figured that this man that had lost his true love had something in common with her. As James's sobbing quieted, Jessie fell asleep dreaming of faceless figures.  
  
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The next morning, James felt a comforting presence at his back. Not yet quite awake, he croaked out her name. When nothing legible came out he cleared his throat and tried again. "Good morning Jessie." He felt the person at his back get up and he rolled over.  
  
"Oh...I'm sorry. I...uh...thought you were some one else." He looked at the bald girl in front of him with pity. Whoever had done that to a poor innocent girl should be punished. "What was she like?" the girl asked. "Well, she was the most beautiful person in the world, plus she was my best friend..."  
  
James spent the entire day telling his cellmate about his Jessica. As he spoke so tenderly of his lost love, Jessie's mind began to clear. She saw herself and this strange man doing all the things he spoke of in his stories. She saw herself with long, beautiful red hair. As these memories came and went, she started to remember things on her own.  
  
James was just starting another story when Jessie broke in. "James," she said softly, not quite remembering. James stopped short. He hadn't told this stranger his name. "What did you say?" he questioned. She repeated herself, more and more memories being added by the second. "James was the name of the man I loved. We...we worked together, but he...he didn't love me back..."  
  
Before she could say another word, James had her scoped up in his arms. "What are you doing," she asked, shocked. "Jessie it's me, James," he paused then they both burst out at the same time, "but you are dead!"  
  
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When Mondo came to visit James the next morning, he wasn't prepared for what he found. When he entered the tiny cell, everything was as it was two days before. The moment the door closed however, both occupants jumped up to great him. "Mondo, its me Jessie" and "Mondo, its her, Jessie" rang out simultaneously. He wasn't sure if he heard right. "Musashi? B-b-but how? We were told that you were dead." "It was that snake, Giovanni, I'll bet you," Jessie said, some of her old spirit returning.  
  
Jessie proceeded to tell Mondo her side of the story. As she finished, Mondo said, "Wow, well then, we need to figure out a way to get you out of here without the boss knowing you were in here."  
  
The plans the made that day assured them of a victory...  
  
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Neither could really believe it. After a month of pain and separation, they had found each other again. As they sat huddled on the floor, Jessie couldn't believe that the man she loved was the one holding her in his arms.  
  
"Ja...mes..." she asked softly. Her only answer was his squeezing her tighter to him. "What happens... what if everything goes wrong tomorrow?" Jessie felt James sigh. "It won't," he replied. "But how do you know that?" she insisted. Because I'll never again let you out of my sight. I couldn't bear it if you were to disappear again, he thought. Instead, he said, "So much bad has happened to us already that nothing bad could possibly be left."  
  
Jessie sighed and sunk deeper into James's chest. She still wasn't convinced, but maybe James was right. At any rate, it was good to spend the night with her best friend... and true love. She wouldn't let anything go wrong. If she had anything to say about it, they would live happily ever after...  
  
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It was finally over. More than a month of worry and pain behind them all. As Jessie, James and Mondo finally got back to camp, Jessie stopped James.  
  
"James, I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?" As Jessie proposed, James couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. He slowly took the ring from his pocket... 


End file.
